FAQs

If parties are not married, Child Support can assist in determining a child’s legal father. It is important for your child to know who his or her parents are. Establishing paternity ensures both your child’s rights and your rights as parents. Establishing paternity guarantees a child’s right to receive financial and medical support. The Wisconsin Department of Children & Families explains in detail the process for establishing paternity and how to access this service.

Learn More about Establishing Paternity

Child Support can assist in obtaining a child support and medical support order from a parent who is not living with or supporting his or her child. The child support agency can assist in determining who the father is, how much child support should be paid, locate absent parents and file the necessary legal documents to obtain a court order.

State law requires that all orders for support are paid via income withholding from your paycheck. An income withholding order will be mailed to your employer. It can take 2-4 weeks for your employer to process the withholding. It is your responsibility to send in payments on your own until you see it withheld from your paycheck. Those payments can be made online via Allpaid.

Yes, you can represent yourself. The decision to represent yourself in court is an important one. When making this decision you must be aware of the responsibilities you are undertaking. This means you are responsible for every aspect of your case from filing paperwork to providing evidence.

No, you cannot. All payments must be made via the Child Support system. If you make payments directly to the custodial parent, you won't get credit for those payments. It could therefore be considered a gift and not a child support payment.

When the court sets child support or medical support orders, the county child support agency can assisting in enforcing those orders. Some enforcement services are (but not limited to) Income Withholding, Liens, Interest, and Tax intercept.

No. Your child support order continues at the same rate. Contact your caseworker or your attorney to find out how to modify your child support order. The adjustment is not automatic.

If your child support case in Dodge County is a NON IV-D case, it means that your case is not currently receiving case management services from the Child Support Agency. Your case is not receiving case management services because neither parent has filed an application for IV-D services with the Child Support Agency. If you currently have a Non IV-D case and would like to apply for services, please select from the options below.

Please note: If your court order is for spousal support only and there is no order for child support, you will not be able to apply for child support IV-D services.

Printable Application

When the court sets child support or medical support orders, the county child support agency can assisting in enforcing those orders. Some enforcement services are (but not limited to) Income Withholding, Liens, Interest, and Tax intercept.

Enforcement Overview

If a parent requests a review of their case from the local child support agency, the agency has up to 180 days to complete the review. A child support agency may deny the request, attempt to facilitate an agreement with the other parent, or set a court date for review by a judge.

Legal change of a child support order is called a modification. A change could increase or decrease the amount of the support order. It could also add or modify the order to provide medical support.

An order could be modified if a review finds:

• The order does not follow the Percentage of Income guidelines
• There has been a substantial change in circumstance (such as placement or income)
• It  has been over 33 months since the order was last reviewed
• The modification of support would result in a change of 15% of the current order and $50 or more a month

Additional details on this process can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families website.